>But with SET DATE SHORT, you enter say 01-01-0100, VFP throws and error and there is apparently no
>way to trap it. I tried catching it in VALID and the error occurs before VALID gets called.

I reported this particular problem, so they are aware of it.

Can you do anything with ON READERROR? That would trap an invalid date in earlier versions of FoxPro, but I'm not sure what it will do in a form with READ EVENTS.